


The Eagle's Cross

by Christi_Bee



Series: EGC [3]
Category: Eddsworld - All Media Types
Genre: AU Timeline, Blood Family, Canon Divergence, Drama, Family, Found Family, Gen, Mystery, No Romance, Sci-Fi, also again i swear i'll add more characters as we go, because in this house it's real family hours, it finally comes into play here :3c, refound family, soft sci-fi, this takes place in an AU where The End's events never happened - note i said events!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:21:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28569183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Christi_Bee/pseuds/Christi_Bee
Summary: Moving into an old ancestral house, an excuse to not do her family's business for six months, living with a younger sister and her best friend; bits and pieces of family history affecting the present couldn't get any more unusual for Cora Gold, already in the new year of 2104.But with a half a year of mysteries, unlikely links to upcoming politics and (re-)found family, the past affecting the present is going to be more than unusual.Updates every second Friday between chapters in AEST!
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Series: EGC [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2078829
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	1. Basement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For tis from the light that light will dawn;  
> and then shines forth  
> The Eagle’s Cross.  
> -Sir Francis Haddock, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn.

**Monday, 7th January, 2104.**

* * *

_“Your arrival to Destination, Twenty-Seven Dirdum Lane, will be in ten minutes. Your skyroad is clear of any traffic.”_

“Mmmh… I hate to be that guy, Jasper, but it’s been _over_ ten minutes since the GPS said those exact words.” I mumble, still half-asleep.

“It’s an old one, Cora,” he rolls his eyes in the car mirror, “That hunk of junk has the last few maps to take you to your ancestors’ house. Your siblings used it when they had to renovate the place.”

“Why couldn’t you use _their_ maps? Like, download ‘em?”

“The information’s top secret. Anybody sees it pass through the network, dark web or not, and they’ll want to use the land for some damn project. Another pod suburbs or the next Asdfland. Your family home’s too precious.”

I rub my brown-and-blue mismatching eyes under my glasses, huffing. He has a point.

To my left, my sixteen-year-old little sister protests, waking up from her nap.

“Why couldn’t have I modified Jasper’s GPS? Or a copy of Jasper’s routes to include the pathway to Dirdum Lane?”

“I know you mean well, Laurie,” Jasper sighs, “But it would’ve corrupted my maps either way. I wouldn’t be able to keep a private job for your dad any longer.”

From my right, my best friend Emily chuckles a little.

“You make the Golds sound like they’re stupid-rich--“

“When we’re not,” I finish, “We’re just an independent family delivery company for drinks services.”

“You’re well off enough though,” Jasper points out, “Just enough to keep a whole bunch of things going on.” 

Including his job, keeping the family house running and my work hours reduced to a fortnight shift while I live at the old house… Dragging my best friend and my little sister along is just a bonus.

“Fair.”

_“Recalculating… Your arrival to your destination, Twenty-Seven Dirdum Lane, will be in three hours. You are on the fastest route to your destination, despite traffic congestion.”_

The three of us groan in unison and sink in our seats even further, being squished into pancakes a tiny bit more from the little room we have in the back of the passenger area.

Em and I share an exhausted glance, Laurie whinging our exact complaint seconds after.

“It’s been freaking foreveeeeeeeer! There’s no traffic here, let alone an airroad!”

“Laurel,” I warn, “Watch your tone. Jasper’s doing his best for us. We’re just one hovertruck, I know, but we need to be patient.”

Honestly though, I feel the exact same way.

“It’s _been_ three hours since we left the suburbs…” She mumbles in a half-hearted protest. “For all we know it’s just another lot of forest again…” 

Sharing another look with Emily, she smiles sympathetically, her warm, umber-brown skin creasing into dimples.

_It’ll be alright. We’ll be there before we know it._

Still, my chest can’t help but sink at the prospect of having to wait another eternity till we reach the ancestral family house. 

Even now, it’s weird to believe my great-great-granddad’s will allowed _me_ to own it. Not my dad, not my granddad, not international cousins, a strange old home in the back of nowhere in England goes straight to _me._ Extra rights from another three ancestral lines make me the prime candidate, since my older brothers and sister couldn’t take it. I don’t blame them for being busy with university. 

But I’m glad they set aside time to renovate the place to former glory in time for Christmas. Though it is weird that they got along with _dad_ for it, considering they’re all on different levels of angry at him. Why? Not that I know the whole story. Well, at least Laur and Em joining in is just an added bonus - both dad and I agreed that there was no way of living alone while there.

It’s my first time living away from my parents. Same with Laur. Same with Em. Her parents had been more resistant to the idea of letting their only child go, but it all came through just in time. We’ve been craving independence for a long time after graduating high school (well, Laurie’s still going through it), so of course everything kinda just fell into place. Knowing Em, she already had packed her bags to get out from her parents’ place regardless if they said yes or no.

Still, one of the conditions she had from her parents for staying with me was that she’d message them as much as she could, if not everyday. Bit of a pain in the arse, but I don’t blame them. We’re both hoping it gets too redundant for them over time. Besides, we’re the only ones in this neighbourhood - nothing but our own shenanigans are bound to happen here. 

Besides, my other siblings did say something… Weird was going on when they were renovating it. I mean, might as well be something left behind so I don’t get bored staying here, but I wonder… 

_“Your destination, Twenty-Seven Dirdum Lane, is two hundred and fifty metres below you. Please find a suitable nearby landing road.”_

Oh, thank God.

* * *

Jasper’s landing techniques, _especially_ in sudden, pouring rainfall, is always rough and this is no exception.

_BANG._

Did I mention this strip is a century-old, cracking tar road and has no landing lights?

“DAMMIT--“

“Jasper! You haven’t qualified for wet-water landings yet?!”

“DIDN’T HAVE THE TIME TO!”

“I think I’m gonna pass out--“

“Not just yet Laur--oof, hey, tie your hair back next time, Goldilocks!”

“I already did Cora! Not my fault it goes everywhere!”

“It’s _your_ hair, Lorrie!”

“Can you not call me that?! You know I hate that name!”

“It’s a slip of the tongue this time, I swear!”

“Can’t you stop this thing from spinning, Jasper?”

“I’M BLOODY TRYING, MISS BROCK!”

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

_SCREEEEEEECH_

_SPLASSHHHHHHH…._

_Pant, puff, heave…_

“So, how did you three enjoy the ride?” 

* * *

“Worth the nap,” Laur grins as she yanks open the door and splashes into a fresh puddle, not caring about the splattering buckets of rain, “But you seriously need to refine your landing.”

“I agree,” Em smiles gently, lowering herself out and covering her head with an arm, “And I do feel a little… Well, flattened.”

“I suppose the spin at the end spiced up everything.” Jasper shrugs as he pulls out his e-cigar, lankily dropping from the driver’s seat and opening the back of the truck, rolling out the delivery hovervan, “Not something that happens every day when you’re landing with Z gear.”

Following Em to my right, I pull my hood down to avoid the water from hitting my glasses as much as I can, but nevertheless droplets make their way onto the lenses. Dammit.

“You sure you three’ll be alright?” Jasper wonders as he shuts the back doors, “Don’t you want an umbrella?”

“We’ll manage, Mr de Venner!” Em calls back, pulling three large bags to the door, two of them not even belonging to her.

“There’s three of us to take care of the place and ourselves, we should be fine,” I grin, handing over Laurie’s favourite blue tech bag to her.

“If you need a hand with any big plans, don’t be afraid to call, bud.” Jasper points out, “Also, here’s your keys to the house and the delivery van. You three do know how to open a twenty-first-century door, right?”

“Twist the handle and push forwards,” Laurie smirks, in that somewhat narcissistic way when she knows she’s right. I can’t help rolling my eyes, but Jasper ruffles her fringe.

“Smart kid. You lot stay safe.”

“You too Jasper. Don’t crash this time!” Em jokes, “I don’t think my mum and dad would be happy to hear about an unplanned roommate!”

“Hey, my pop wrecked a plane _once_ in his army days and this is what the rest of my family is known for? I’ll be alright Emily, and I’m sure your parents will loosen up too.”

A grin cracks my face open as Jasper takes off from the neighbourhood, flies the hovertruck through the rain-drenched air and into the clouds above.

Of course I’ll be safe.

“Cora, come on, or we’ll lock you out!”

“Dammit Laurie, I’m coming! I’m the one with the keys anyway!”

* * *

“Hey, does anybody know where the heaters are in this place?”

“Em, you’re in a turtleneck.”

“And drenched. I know it’s old but ancient polyester isn’t a total miracle!”

“I got this, I’ll have a map up of the electricity network soon!”

“Laurie!” I groan, facepalming, “D’you always have to hack your way into _everything_ we encounter?”

“Cora,” Em shrugs, squeezing some water out of her thick braid into the kitchen sink, “It’s _Laurie_ we’re talking about. She would and always will.”

“I heard that!”

“I know you mean well, that’s what I’m saying!”

“Thank you!”

Em’s genuinely too nice.

“Okay, I found the entire electric system and a water system too. At least we’ll be able to actually shower!”

That’s good to know.

“Let’s see what happens when I turn all the heat-related stuff on!”

Wait a minute--

“LAURIE--”

_ZZZ. Crackle. Click._

Well, there goes everything electric.

“Sorry! Didn’t know climate lightbulbs were part of the heating system!”

“Those existed in the early last century?” Em inquires, dragging me to the living room where Laur’s perched on top of the red sofa.

“Mmm, don’t think so,” Laur shakes her head, “If that were the case, it’d be cool.”

“Guess it’s just an addition from the twins and Jaxx when they were renovating the place.” I shrug, “Although, I still don’t get why…”

“Them?” Em finishes my thoughts, “Why not some actual renovators?”

Y’know, it does give a bit of reasoning why her parents weren’t as eager as mine to let her go… 

“Jaxx said that Dad mentioned specifics about the house being renovated to ‘former glory’ or something,” I reckon, frowning a little, “Although he also said dad was a little… Shifty about it from what the twins mentioned to him. Not that it’s honestly anything new, but Ed was especially nervous after they’d done the entire thing. He said something about checking the basement.”

“The basement?” Laur wonders aloud.

_ZZZ. Crackle. Click._

Oh, thank god.

“Nice one, Laurie!”

“Did you beat your record?”

“Um, guys? I didn’t do that.”

Wait, what?

“The whole system’s back up, but I didn’t even make a start on fixing the issue.”

“Wha--seriously?”

Laur shifts one of her holoscreens to face me and Em with a gloved hand, revealing a floorplan of the entire electrical system and water system. (Speaking of, how the hell did the twins manage to send electricity and water to this place without being noticed by the city council? Do we even have to pay taxes for this? God, I hope not.)

“ _Five_ layers of basement!” Em manages out, astonished, “There’s _five_ levels of basement? Who needs _five_ layers of basement?”

Laur presses the left of that screen before pointing to a tiny clock.

“Here, that’s when I blew out the whole system. The white line floorplan is the electrics, but check it out!”

She presses the centre of the screen and I notice three blips on the ground floor; green and purple in the kitchen that move to the living room where the blue one is, then the white lines come back on after about five to ten seconds.

“Did you see it?”

“Yeah, the green, blue and purple dots on the ground level.”

Emily gives a look while Laurie facepalms.

“She was talking about the area in the basement. The ground floor dots are _us._ ”

“Good thing you saw it, but don’t spoil it for Cora.”

“Hey!”

Laurie rewinds the clock again to when she first blew the electric system.

… Holy moly.

“What the hell are those white blips?”

“Language, Cor. Also, there’s _four_ of them! Moving like we are!”

When the electric system goes back on, they vanish.

“They look like a part of the system, but if there’s nothing down there, it might be a glitch in my gadgetry and in the house. It’ll just be a matter of recalibrating… Right?”

“Laurie…” Em folds her arms, hesitating before talking again, “It’s only us three in this house, I’m pretty sure. We’re totally alone. Ghosts don’t exist, and even if they did, they don’t emit electricity.”

Surely you weren’t going to say _that,_ Em… 

“Last I checked, lore says that they do, Emily…” 

“They don’t exist, Laurie, we’re fine. We’re completely alone.”

“Are we, Em?”

Em has that look of ‘don’t-be-ridiculous-let’s-brush-this-off’, but Laur’s blue eyes are saying the same things that are starting to churn in my chest.

Curiosity. Fear. Worry.

I wonder if I could ever go down there without either of them noticing… 

“If my holo-sensors can pick it up…”

“Laur,” Emily tries to reassure her, “Don’t be silly. It could be the twins leaving behind a prank for us to fall into. Or it could just be a glitch in the system - surely there’s no way it could be anything else.”

Honestly, I don’t know about Laur and Emmy, but my chest is pounding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My god, it's actually happening. 
> 
> For those not in the know, Eagle's Cross is a fic I've been writing and rewriting since 2015. 2015! I was a minor! The fandom was so different back then compared to now and this story has also grown up alongside it. You might be able to see the age in it, even from the rewrites which began in 2017.
> 
> Even now as of writing this, it's still unfinished. There's a lot of editing to do for most of the story and a whole finale which most likely be rewritten, but I promised myself I would finish this. 
> 
> I also want to give a shoutout to my longtime pal @JokerV3 who I commissioned to do the main trio for ACT ONE's cover page - which is still in progress, but should be done soon! Whilst I did the background (and a bunch of its assets) ages ago, I'd been struggling with doing art of the three since my style was ever-shifting with time and recently I just... got exhausted after a lot of university. Whilst they did the lines and flats, I finished up with the shading and lighting. Send them a kudos to any of their fics on here or just commission them! I'll provide links in here once it's done.
> 
> I'll see you all tomorrow for chapter two, then not next Friday, but the one after!


	2. Rooms.

**Monday, 7th January, 2104.**

* * *

“I call dibs on the master bedroom!”

“I did that long before we arrived, Laur!”

“Awww, you’re no fun, Cora!”

“You sure about that?” I look around the room with a grin, “You wouldn’t have wanted the master room anyway, it’s not even your colour!”

The walls are a pleasant, eye-soothing mid-tone green. In front of me and off to the right is the king-sized double bed, lengthways to a window showing off the freshly soaked backyard. On the bed, I’ve laid my old rider’s bow and a new quiver with arrows from the twins - things I didn’t think I’d pack to bring but still did. 

Someday my old friend, I’ll get back to you. Someday. 

A small display shelf is above my bed on the right wall, with a few books and a peculiar glass bottle sitting there. Close to the doorframe on my left, there’s a set of three drawers with a framed photo on the top. Either dad wanted some authenticity to the place or the twins were being silly again, because those drawers are partially filled with clothes already: complete replicas of what the old Gold great-great-grandpa wore in his days.

“Dad must be off his rocker to have these in here, if he did ask for this…”

On the right wall, there’s two doors leading to an ensuite bathroom and a walk-in-wardrobe respectively, though I don’t think the original Edward had such luxuries. (Well, that and Holodoors didn’t exist back then.) I take the chance to throw my luggage into the walk-in wardrobe and put it out of mind for at least a few hours.

To the left wall, there’s a desk with an old-fashioned desktop computer system and a few shelves to store a couple of things. A large glass door cabinet stands next to that, mostly barren except for one shelf totally filled with books – Edward I’s sketchbooks upon closer inspection.

There’s a note from the twins also:

> Cora, if it’s you staying in here (which I’m pretty sure it is), this is just a heads up if you want to flip through the sketchbooks. Having looked through them myself, ya boi Edward I was not a mature person.
> 
> -Ell.

Oh dear.

> By the way, check the attic. It’s where we found the sketchbooks.
> 
> -Ed.

The attic?

“Oh my goodness, you have to check out the attic!”

The attic.

* * *

Emily’s attic bedroom is a treasure trove of relics.

Whilst her bed and ensuite are off to the far wall (good thing she has the latter), the wall next to the entryway has shelves decked out with memorabilia which I'm starting to recognise from the family tales. Microphones, TV sets, guitars, books, the list goes on and on.

“Ooh hey, a vintage copy of Space Cats: The Movie!” I notice, picking up the ancient DVD case and popping it open, “Didn’t Laurie’s namesake have a main role in Thomas the First’s film?”

“Wasn’t it a shoe who directed it or something?” Em points out, “Though it sounds totally ridiculous. I doubt that part happened.”

“Well, whoever directed it, I hope my namesake wasn’t in it.” My little sister huffs, “The film turned out to be a complete flop – I’d rather _that_ Laurel be known for something decent.”

“Oh Laur,” I elbow her, “Always the classic Richwell film critic of us Golds.”

“Hey!”

“Aw, she even has that tiny hint of Hartgrace narcissism!”

“Emilyyyy!”

“I’m only joking, Laur! Honestly though, with all these photos of Matthew the First up here, I’m not surprised the Hartgraces are known for vanity. I’ll have to take most, if not all of them down if I want to feel comfortable here.”

Well, she’s not lying. On both counts - old Matthew’s narcissism is getting to _me_ and he isn’t even here. 

_Beep beep!_

“Oh, completely forgot about the notifications,” Laurie mumbles, pulling up her holoscreens, “Gugh, where from this time?”

“Hey, didn’t know you read the news, Laur,” I remark, noticing the slide that pops up immediately, the front-page article looking… Interesting.

“I don’t do that, it’s just the default home screen-- ‘Former Inventor Rises to Judicial power?’”

Even Em raises an eyebrow.

“What does that mean?”

“Don’t know. Let’s see.”

> **The Daily Blarh, 6th January, 2104.**
> 
> _**Former Inventor Rises to Judicial Power** _
> 
> Under mysterious circumstances, the former founder and CEO of the inventing and engineering company, Phoenix Industries, has ruthlessly risen to one of the highest ranks in the legal world. With Sidney McCoy poised to take on the case that tainted his former career, Tony Rees dives in to untangle the mystery.
> 
> Apart from an iteration of his grandfather's side-do and love of 20th-century Rock & Roll, the once starry-eyed founder and CEO of Phoenix Industries was a complete opposite to one of the most feared military leaders of the United States of America.
> 
> After an illegal drug mafia’s fundings were discovered to be connected to Phoenix, McCoy instantly shut down his multi-quintillion enterprise, denying participation of the smuggling and clearly distraught, according to inside sources.
> 
> This was merely nine months ago.
> 
> Since then, he has strangely managed to undertake and pass high legal studies within this time, now prepared to act as judge, lawyer and defendant altogether, at the case that shattered his company, appropriately named Firebird vs Pepper.
> 
> The once ecstatic and joyful McCoy now looked gravely stoic as he walked into the courthouse, a similar-looking relative dressed in black by his side…

“Aww, there’s a subscription box at the bottom,” Laurie laments, “It was getting really interesting!”

“Sounds like a revenge thing to me,” Em frowns.

“Nine months?” I wonder aloud, “How can this guy learn law and come out a judge _and_ lawyer in nine months?!”

“There’s something off about that Sidney fellow,” Em agrees, “Wouldn’t be surprised if he and his terrible hairstyle come back up. Was he trying to dye his hair black?”

“Not a bad gradient thing from the tips of his hair, if that’s what he’s going for.” I shrug.

“But black with dirty blonde?” Laur shakes her head, “What is he trying to become, a bee version of Elvis or something?”

 _“Bee Elvis!”_ I actually burst into loud snorting giggles, “Oh my god, Laurie! I hate that you’re right!”

“Please don’t think about what could come from it,” Em shakes her head, “You have to spare him the dignity!”

Heh, _Barry Bee Belvis._

“Moving away from Bee Elvis,” Laurie sighs in that _anyway_ Richwells tone, “I found my bedroom before Em called us up.”

“Oh?”

* * *

My sister’s room reminds me of the TARDIS: big and blue.

To the immediate left, there’s a coatrack on it, already with a puffy hooded coat, waiting for a snow day. Next to that and going forward, a decently sized in-built closet has Laur’s luggage in it already. The right side of the room has her bed, already covered with her cutesy space-themed bedsheets. Two bedside tables sit on either side of it, a small framed photo on the wall completing the setup.

“The bathroom’s a fair bit away from here since there’s no ensuite,” Laur sighs, “Can’t believe Thomas lived like this…”

“Not everyone has the luxury of an ensuite, Laur.” I shake my head, “Also, how’d you know this was his bedroom?”

Laur gives me that ‘camera on The Office’ look while pointing at the picture frame.

“Oh.”

“Oh dear!” Em giggles.

It’s a photo of Thorfrid Lawson the First, but there’s insulting black marker doodles on it, with the classic moustache, devil horns and fart lines.

“I’m surprised our heritage even comes from these two…” I shake my head, remembering the tales of intense rivalry between Thomas I and Thorfrid I.

“Y’know,” Laur frowns, walking to it, “I don’t like that photo, honestly. I’d rather have it-- what the--”

There’s another framed photo underneath, this one of a big red danger button.

“Why would anyone have that on the wall, let alone Thomas?”

Laur’s as confused as I’m feeling.

“Maybe he had an acquired taste of humour?” Em suggests.

“Probably,” Laur tosses away the first frame on the bed before grabbing the second one, “But this picture freaks me out too-- whoa!”

That’s not a framed photo under the framed photo.

* * *

Laurie grips onto the red-knobbed lever with wide eyes, but she’s hesitating.

“What are you waiting for?”

“What if something bad is gonna happen, Cor? What if I unleash a giant robot that could take over the world?”

“Pff, don’t be silly,” I roll my eyes, “That only happens in over-the-top dramatic season finales in webshows. There’s absolutely no possible way there’d be a giant robot to be unleashed under the house.”

“I’m with Cor on this one,” Em nods, “Besides, if it _really_ were the case, you could hack into that hunk of junk and deactivate it within a minute.”

“I suppose you’re right…”

Laurie pulls the lever.

A wall rises up.

Her room _is_ a TARDIS: blue and bigger on the inside.

* * *

“Oh, my god!” Laurie gasps, “An entire hidden room all for me to use! Finally, a place where I can keep all my holos instead of taking my entire setup with me!”

“Y’know Cor,” Em shares a look with me, “This place doesn’t look like a Richwells room.”

“Agreed. No way would Thomas have this right next to his room and hidden for no good reason.”

An empty rack on the side has a note that says, ‘not a gun rack’ (though based on the dust silhouettes, I doubt otherwise). There’s a whole bunch of old tech around the lab with buttons on it (well, I think it’s a lab). A set of three framed photos are on a right-hand-side locker, one of them seems reminiscent of Jasper.

“The Richwells’ aren’t really science or tech-motivated people… This looks more, well… Lawson-y.”

“What about your mum then? With her qualifications in High Physics and Chemistry?”

“She’s a Richwells-Hartgrace, that’s different!” I protest, “Helps with the drinks production!” Emily still chuckles.

“Well, wherever she gets it from, good thing it’s passed to Laurie. Then Laur can keep an eye on all the house systems to avoid the glitches!”

I shut up. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! That's the first two chapters of The Eagle's Cross released! 
> 
> I'll see you not next Friday, but the Friday after for chapter three. Stay safe everyone!


	3. Tech

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snow much for a decently mundane day.

**Tuesday, 15th January, 2104.**

* * *

Since Laurie discovered the anomalies in the electrical system, the three of us avoid raising the subject - for our own reasons, I’m sure. Em probably doesn’t believe, Laur _maybe_ wants to believe but isn’t sure if she can trust what she’s found, and I don’t want to stir up trouble so early in our stay. Instead, we’re still adjusting to our new home and bedrooms, whilst battling the cold which is _insistent_ on coming in one way or another. So much for insulation. 

“Did one of you leave a door open? My thermometer shows one of the rooms is at three degrees Celsius!”

“Laurie, it’s probably you hon.”

“Emily, I swear I _always_ close the doors! It must be you or Cora!”

“Oi! You’re the one who usually forgets to lock your locker at school!”

“That was _one time_ in Year Nine!”

“Guys, please!” Em’s extra volume shuts us up, “Thank you. Laurie, you did say one of the rooms went to three degrees, right?”

“Yeah…”

“If that’s the case, what’s the weather like outside? The windows have been too fogged up to see clearly. Have you tried wiping them?”

I frown and slide my hand across the glass of the living room window (and my own glasses), gasping while peering through the clear patch.

“Well? What’s it like Corrie?”

I immediately dash to my room and shove on a coat, gloves and beanie from my wardrobe, bolting out the front door of the house and straight into fresh white powder. I don’t even care that my eyesight’s a white cloudy mist on my glasses _again_.

Definitely a perfect snow day. 

* * *

Thirty minutes later, The three of us are bundled up in full winter gear, already having made some snow angels and snowmen. Actually, Laurie’s still going with hers.

To my right, she’s been building a literal monster out of snow, using whatever things she can to add onto the effect. Branches as arms, black pieces of the old cracking tar as eyes, that kind of thing.

Dear god, that thing is _huge_.

“I’m grateful she’s not using the icicles for teeth,” Em admits, encased in a puffy silver parka, “I’d honestly be terrified if she did. I know mum and dad are a little spooked out by it.”

“You sent them a photo?”

“Have to.”

“Well if they’re spooked, that’s their problem, Emmy. I think that snow monster looks friendly, actually.”

“A friendly snow monster?”

“A friendly _Smonster_ , you might say-- ow! Emmy!”

Even with multiple layers of clothing on both sides, Emily’s elbows can still be quite painful, if unintentionally so.

“Please don’t, Corrie. That was terrible.”

She’s _smiling._

“ _Icy_ you’re not a fan of my puns or the name, but please give them a good _thawed!_ ”

“Oh shush!” 

Em pushes me and I trip onto a thick patch of snow, but she’s giggling.

“Admit it Emily, I’m just _sleigh-_ ing at these puns. And if you’re gonna bury me alive today, I want you to know: It was _ice snowing_ you!”

_Plap._

A snowball lands straight on my face, but I can hear Em’s heavenly laughter through the white powder.

Wiping the remains and streaks off my glasses, I sit up to see she’s on the ground, clutching herself while her laughs ring through the air.

_Plap._

Wait. That’s not Em’s snowball…

_Plap._

“ _Scrooge_ you and your puns!”

“Oh, Laurie, you little-- it’s not even Christmas!” I call back while forming a snowball and hurling it at my sister.

Laur ducks.

_Plap._

But I make the hit.

_Beep!_

Just… Not on her though.

* * *

The area where the Smonster is starts to rumble, Laurie scrambling off it just in time for her to witness her creation disappear underground, replaced with a circular patch of peculiarly fresh green grass.

Even Em’s stopped laughing as we approach the scene before us.

“I think you might’ve hit a button or something.” Laur shrugs.

“I wonder what’s down there…” I mumble.

Oh boy, they’re giving me _those_ looks.

“Come on!” I protest, “We have freaking _five_ levels of basement, I’m pretty sure it’s still part of the house and not some Egyptian death tomb or something!”

Both of them exchange suspicious glances at me, each other and the grass patch, though I’m guessing for different reasons.

“What if there’s treasure down there?” I try again, “What have we got to lose?”

“Well…” Em slowly shrugs. 

“And you don’t need to share _any_ of whatever we find down there with your parents, Emmy. Just the smonster is probably more than enough for them today.”

“I suppose…”

“If we have a crapton of like, gold coins down there, I am SO gonna pull an actual Scrooge though,” Laur grins, “Just one thing. How do we get in?”

“What if I threw another snowball at it?”

_Plap._

_Beep!_

Yup.

* * *

“Laurie, I know we give you a lot of flack for it mostly, but I’m grateful you still have some holos on you.”

“Eh, I never go out anywhere without ‘em now,” Laur shrugs smugly, “Always gotta have them in the inner jacket pockets!”

“Could you make them a bit more of a blessing in our lives and light up the area around us, please?”

My exact thoughts, Emily, just a little less formal-sounding… Ish.

“Alright, alright! Geez, I’m getting there! Ah, there we go. Maximum brightness aaaand… Let there be light!”

My jaw hits the dusty floor.

Did… Did this place house a giant robot and a couple tanks underneath?

“Check it out, old blueprints!” Laur points to a desk nearby, a mess of partially ripped papers, covered with at least a century’s worth of dust on them.

“Peculiar,” Em notes, “That mark on the corner there. Isn’t it the same one on the lever of your bedroom?”

I’d see for myself, but I’m _not_ risking hayfever. Especially in winter. Keeping up with Laur and Em as much as possible, I hold my breath whenever we approach a dusty relic or find some sort of strange old-tech device which could potentially blow up in our faces. It’s bad enough I have to keep wiping my glasses from fogging up.

But everything we go past, as I learn from Laur and Em, always has some form of the symbol found on Laurie’s bedroom lever. And I’m getting goosebumps under my coat. It’s probably me just thinking about old family tales again, but I can imagine someone (probably a Lawson) feverishly hard at work with all these mechanical things, also making and signing blueprints off with the symbol… 

Are we… Intruding on something?

“Hey guys? Check this out - a vault! And I could hack the entry point easily!”

Laurie must’ve gone ahead of Em, as she’s standing in front of a massive steel-door, which has a manual ship’s-wheel twisting handle in the centre and a keypad off to the left.

“I have to admit,” Em folds her arms, “That’s impressive.”

I want to mention the mental images rolling in my head and _how much_ I’d like to get out of here, but my mouth finds different words entirely.

“What’s in there?”

“Well, may I?”

“Be my guest.”

Laur grins excitedly as she slides away all her holo-screens except for one, brighter than the rest. 

  


LLGD.

LaureL.d-ai.GolD.

My sister’s ultra-customised, homemade hacking system; one of her biggest pride and joys. 

> Scanning for Potential Access Sites…
> 
> 9 Sites Found.
> 
> 1\. Red Army Vault Code (Active)
> 
> 2\. Red Army Wifi   
> WARNING: PINEAPPLE WIFI,   
> RISK OF DATA LOSS (Active)
> 
> 3\. Launch Pad (Active)
> 
> 4\. 27 Dirdum Lane Electrical (Active)
> 
> 5\. 27 Dirdum Lane Water (Active)
> 
> 6\. 25 Dirdum Lane Satellite base (Inactive)
> 
> 7\. 25 Dirdum Lane Electrical (Inactive)
> 
> 8\. 25 Dirdum Lane Water (Inactive)
> 
> 9\. UNKNOWN (Active)

“What’s with all the Red Army stuff? Sounds stupid in an edgy kinda way.”

“Goodness, why would there still be online connections to the neighbours’ system, of all places?”

“I don’t think it’s even been touched, Emmy. Let alone working in the first place or even renovated.”

“…True.”

“The _unknown_ entry point though,” Laur whistles, “Should we check that out instead?”

Let’s not.

“Shouldn’t we look at the vault first, then maybe check the unknown source later?”

Emily, do you read minds or something?

“Okay,” Laur sighs a little wistfully, “Show us the code, buddy…”

> Red Army Vault Site selected…
> 
> Picking the lock…
> 
> SITE UNLOCKED
> 
> Creating key for future use…
> 
> KEY CREATED: 2 0 0 4

“What’s with all this lock-picking lingo recently?”

“Isn’t hacking pretty much an electronic version of lockpicking? Plus it sounds cool.”

Well… She’s not wrong.

The metal wheel on the door creaks to the left.

_Pop._

_Shhhh…_

> Clearing all traces of presence…

We’re in.

* * *

There’s a _lot_ of tech in the vault, so much that there’s _multiple copies_ of each unique piece. All of it seems a little more modern than outside, but it’s still clearly dated. Laurie’s holoscreen light reflects on the dark metals and glimmers in the places where lights are supposed to be functioning.

“What the bloody hell is this stuff?” I mutter.

“Language, Cora!”

“Sorry Em.”

We keep walking around and look at the old tech, Laurie especially picking up a prosthetic arm. At least, I think it is. It looks like one.

“Wonder what’s the deal with all these parts and why there’s so many of them,” she turns it around to get a better look, “You’d think somebody would be trying to make a bunch of androids.”

“I guess, Laur,” a grin cracks my face, “They were making--”

“Don’t!”

“An _arm_ -y of androids!”

“Uggggh! Nooooooo!”

“Corrie, that was awful.”

“Come on guys,” I lean back with a smirk, “You gotta _hand_ it to me for that one!”

“Stooooooooop! It was _terrible_ and you know it,” Laurie groans.

“Okay, okay, I’ll stop! But you have to appreciate this _handiwork_ in the build.”

Emmy doesn’t say anything while shaking her head, but I _thrive_ for her disappointed look whenever I have the means and chance to invoke it.

Taking the arm from Laurie, I admire all the details of it, thinking. First, about the twins and how they’d go ballistic over it (maybe literally!), and second…

“Hey Laur? D’you think this thing could be an upgrade to your setup in the lab space?”

“… Maybe?”

* * *

We end up taking three arms back, just for fun: one for the display shelf in Emily’s attic room, one for Laurie to retrofit into her current setup later (she’s stored it away for now), and one for me to… well, I’ll figure it out. For now I’ve left it standing on my desk as a display.

Though, now while I’m trying to sleep… I can’t stop thinking about what happened. 

Staring up at the ceiling from my bed, the events down in the basement repeat over and over, sometimes diverging on strange what-if paths. Really, this can’t be a big deal.

But the unknown source Laurie’s program picked up down there…

Why was it noticed? Or even there in the first place? What is it? Is it the reason why those four white dots appeared on our first day here?

I growl and turn over to the side in a huff. Gotta try and calm down…

_CLATTER._

What the--?

I bolt upright, yanking my glasses off the bedside table, flicking on the lamp--

Oh. It’s just the arm, having fallen onto the computer setup. 

…Actually, it seems kinda creepy from here. I’m gonna keep this outta sight for… Maybe a while.

As I put away the arm into the wardrobe, one question lingers in my head.

Is there someone… Watching us?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Goodness, I'd almost forgotten to post a chapter this friday. Long story short, life IRL and in Uni is wild and distracting. As for the cover, I'm almost done with the last bits of detail, so hopefully soon I can release it!
> 
> See you next second friday!


	4. Antiques

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cora and Emily take a peek into the relics of the house.

**Friday, 18th January, 2104.**

* * *

“Sorry Cora,” Laurie sighs, “I can’t do much with you today.”

Damn, I wanted a round of Portal Co-Op with her.

“Why not? Did Ed and Ell send in another coding or hacking challenge?”

“Well, there’s that, but there’s school too.”

“What about it?” I frown, “I thought you don’t start up till next month?”

“Yeah, but I’ve… Well… Gotta clean up some records.”

“Oh… Laur, you’re kidding,” I shake my head.

“Nope. They all still think I’m the mastermind behind the Red Radio prank from last year. I’m lucky I had that one piece of evidence that put a wrench in the works. I’m going to clear my name and set the records straight today, before I head back and everyone’s spying on me.”

“…How?”

“Remember the hard drives and all the holos Ed got me for Christmas?”

“Well, the holos are  _ obvious.  _ I kinda miss your old hardware though.”

“I’ll use it, I’ll use it, I’m sure! Look, but Ed said he, like, took them from the real culprits. He also mentioned they got grounded by their parents after. Didn’t say who they were but guess I’ll find out as I go.”

Considering the call I had with our cousin Toby about the potential suspects on the very same Christmas, I think I have a good idea who they are. 

“Well, here’s hoping. Though, you did get in detention for writing and doodling on the bathroom walls.” I point out.

“Hey, those were positive messages and encouraging doodles - they’re still there!”

Laurie, you actual chaotic wholesome cinnamon roll… 

“You sure you don’t want your buddies in Anonymous to help out?”

“I’m not Anonymous, Cora! They’ve been disbanded since forever!”

“Wasn’t there a successor to them though? Legion, or Legend of Legion, right? Ed mentioned links between  _ those  _ guys and whoever had the holos before you.”

“They’re just a legend, Cora.”

“It’s  _ literally  _ in the name.”

“But they can’t be real!” 

“Well, best of luck clearing your name. I’m gonna see what Emily’s up to.”

Laur raises an eyebrow, “You’re gonna try to convince her about the feedback video again?”

“Maybe not today, but she told me she’s got her hands on some stuff, though. Wonder what she’s found.”

* * *

A dark alleyway, a seemingly empty street on a near-black night, an attic in a hundred-year old house… Anywhere I go with Emily, I feel safe. I’m not sure what it is about her which gives off that feeling. The acrobatic jiu-jitsu training? The unending kindness she shows to all? Or the faith she’s so invested in?

Whatever it is, it’s so easy to take in the atmosphere she brings once I’m up the steps of the attic. By the looks of things, she’s already made a few changes.

There’s less clutter to the antiques and where they’re placed, with even some new things. There’s a writing desk near one of the windows. On it, a short stack of neatly-placed lilac notebooks and a pen holder next to them. Next to that, a pull-up bar and temporary barre which I  _ think _ ballet dancers use. I also spot a Persian rug on the floor, and a hatstand close to a fancily carved wardrobe. The hatstand has her parka from a few days ago and a white beret on it, and I’m guessing her luggage is in the old wardrobe. (By the way, how did she get all that up here without help or any of us noticing?)

The ancestral wall of memorabilia is (mostly) undisturbed, but the more I look at it, something feels…

“Oh! Hey Corrie!”

“Hey Emmy. You look puffed.”

“Just finished doing some gymnastics exercises - you know, the usual stretches and mini-routines. What brings you up here?”

“Laurie’s busy clearing up school records so nobody goes all Big Brother on her for when she gets back.”

“Oh dear,” Em shakes her head, “Which records?”

“The framing of her from--”

“The Red Radio prank? Goodness, they really didn’t let go of it?”

“Apparently not,” I sigh, sitting on the edge of her bed, “I think we know it’s the Lawson twins at this point, but since Laur and I are quarter-Lawson, she’s the one with more IT skills and all the other evidence was  _ really  _ damning…”

“The blame falls to her still,” Em finishes, “I pray she gets a break this semester, maybe she won’t have summer homework either.”

“Summer homework? Em, what they give kids these days is--”

“Ridiculous! Goodness, it’s the homework of final-year university--”

“University students, not high-school kids! Seventeen-thousandth digit of pi my a--”

“Blooming backside!”

Em and I share a silent glance before we giggle.

“So apart from Laurie clearing her name, is that all?”

“Pretty much. How are your parents going?”

“Oh, they’re okay, Cor. Met up with them last Sunday at church. They were glad I could make it there on time. Wouldn’t stop talking my ears off after the service, though.  _ Really  _ want to know a lot about life here.”

“I don’t blame them, Em. You’re the only kid they’ve had. Of course it’s going to be hard for them to let go. Even my parents didn’t want to let  _ me or Laur _ go at first when Jaxx and the twins renovated the place.”

“You were their last in-house employees that could do deliveries since Jaxx and the twins wormed their way out.”

“Hey, I still do deliveries! Just less often now - once every fortnight.”

“Cora, you know I’m the only child that got born out of mum and dad’s multiple attempts. You’ve got  _ siblings _ . It’s not that I’m envious of you for it or not happy living here. I’m glad I’m here! I just… I don’t want to already lose the independence I just got. I don’t want to stuff it up.”

Maybe… Is she trying to trick herself into not believing stuff is happening?

“Emmy?”

“Yeah?”

“You won’t stuff up,” I smile and shake my head, “You’ll be okay. Laurie and I have got your back if things go sideways. As the owner of Twenty-Seven Dirdum Lane,  _ I  _ now get the privilege of a final say in stuff like this!”

“And what’s that final say?”

“That  _ you  _ get the actual final say if you want to stay or leave--”

“Corrie!”

“Rent is non-existent for any of us and you’re not only my best friend, but also my best housemate!”

“What about Laurie?”

“You’re the best housemate who  _ isn’t  _ my sister. You’re not gonna leave against  _ your _ own independent will because it is  _ your  _ final say! Not your parents’ say, _ yours _ .”

I pull her into a side hug, both of us giggling again before I let go.

“Well, good to know my legal rights, Miss Gold! Oh, by the way?”

“Yeah?”

“I tried to keep the secret basement after the smonster a secret, but I wasn’t stoic enough to hide it from chatting with mum and dad at church.”

“Hey, that’s alright!” I grin, “Share what you want! Not everything has to be a secret from them! How’d they react?”

“Well, at least mum was excited about it. She mentioned a bunch of funny old movies that had ancestral houses with secret passageways and rooms in them. She told me to tell you she was happy for you about it.”

“Tell her I said thanks back. But… I’m guessing your dad…” 

“He… Wasn’t so excited. Went off on a stupid spiel about how ‘my daughter shouldn’t be in a place like that’, but mum calmed him down enough to stop him going past a minute.”

“Stuff him,” I blow a raspberry, “That’s his bloody problem--”

“Language!”

“Sorry. As I was saying, it’s  _ his  _ problem and not  _ yours.  _ We’ll be twenty in July, you’re my housemate with an independent statement and I get the owner’s final say for you to have the ultimate final say.”

“Goodness, the way you say it sounds like a paradox when it isn’t.” 

“Besides, who the hell--”

“Cora!”

“Sorry, I meant to say who the  _ heck  _ is your dad to say what you’re allowed to investigate into, regarding  _ my  _ house and its neat little mysteries?  _ We  _ don’t have all the answers and haven’t been through every nook and cranny, neither does he! Both your parents don’t have the answers! But we’re a homeowner, a hacker and my best friend with a knack for… I dunno, somehow  _ knowing _ things through your faith. We’ll get through it. You’ll be fiiiiiiine.”

Well, I hope she gets the hint about the basement movement, even if I can’t tell if she has.

“…Thanks, Corrie. I really needed it.”

“Hey. No problem. By the way, speaking of ancestral places and things…”

“Yeah?”

“I was actually wondering where you found all the antique stuff that you’ve got in your room now.”

“Oh! Like the Persian rug and writing desk?”

“Yeah. That stuff.”

“Well, I actually found the writing desk as one of those old flat-packs. Can’t believe it managed to survive for so long.”

“Hang on, don’t tell me. Is the brand--”

“Swedish. Yep, it is. Definitely what you’re thinking of.”

I stare at her desk, dumbfounded.

“How the bloody hell did those things last for so long in the packaging?”

_ Thump. _

“Ow, Emmy!”

“My apologies, but your language, Corrie! You’re really going at it!”

“My bad. It’s probably the third black bruise in this month,” I shrug nonchalantly. I know Em doesn’t mean to harm me, but she does get a little vigorous in her light-meaning elbow jabs, “Besides, Jaxx is  _ the  _ worst foulmouth of us.” 

“ _ Don’t _ remind me.” She shudders. “But like I said, it’s a surprise that all I’ve found has lasted in mint condition for so long.”

My eyes shift from the desk and I swear, either my eyesight or glasses are really good, since things look a little  _ too  _ clean and perfect. Sure, I know Emily must’ve wiped them down, but…

“…Where  _ did  _ you get those things, by the way?”

“I found them in one of the spare bedrooms, same with the rug,” Em shrugs, “Well, I think it used to be a bedroom. You can’t really see the beds there. It’s more like a strange antiques room, actually.”

“I don’t think anybody in my family would be sentimentalists from early in the family line,” I scoff, before mentally slapping myself, “Well… The Hartgraces would be actually, bunch of ginger kleptomaniacs.”

“Cora, don’t talk about your grandmother like that!” Em exclaims before rolling her eyes, leading us down the stairs of the attic, “But knowing her, I guess you’re right to a degree.”

“I wonder how much of her stuff comes from  _ her grandfather _ ,” I remark, smiling as Emily stops me at the door of one of the spare bedrooms.

“Oh, I’m sure he left behind a fair amount for her. But I don’t know if it’s compared to what he might’ve left for us,” Em grins as she pushes the handle and lets the door swing wide open.

My jaw hits the floor.

* * *

The two sets of bunk beds in here are barely visible amongst the weird mini-museum of a tiny room. Books, nicknacks, toys, pottery, almost everything that’s ‘antique’ in this day and age has made a home here. Sorry gran, but you’ve got absolutely  _ nothing _ on your granddad.

Two particularly common groups of antiques are mirrors and bottles, the majority of the latter group being in the same strange shape like the one in my bedroom.

Some of these bottles have red-and-white labels on them with too-swirly calligraphy on them for me to read, and other have a sort of brown liquid inside. Those ones I don’t even lift a finger for. Who knows what ghastly stuff is in there.

“Apparently the room was filled with a lot of junk before it turned out like this,” Em mentions, holding a slip of paper, “According to Jaxx’s note, it was, I quote: a real Hart-grade mess.”

I groan and roll my eyes before picking up one of the empty glass bottles. “The next time I see him, I think I’m going to punch him. Hey… Em?”

“Mm?”

“D’you think we could sell some of this stuff to the antique shop in the city? I mean, it looks valuable.”

“If we organise what’s sentimental and what’s not, I suppose we could; as long as it doesn’t turn out to be junk. It might help us get extra groceries and such when the pantry runs out. D’you think people early last century used up all their things in the pantry before they bought more things?”

I shake my head.

“I don’t think so, no…”

“Must’ve been a waste of space and food, then.”

“It never hurts to stock up, Em. Never know when a situation might come up and we can’t get in contact with the rest of the world.”

“Like a swarm of ghosts will rise up from the dead and raid our kitchen since they haven’t eaten in so long?”

“Emily,” I snicker, “you never cease to amuse me.”

She smiles, but goes back to serious.

“We  _ should _ sell some of this stuff. It’ll make life and our weekly budgets easier.”

“I guess a bunch of the mirrors can go…” I start to think, “Those strange bottles could work too.”

“Not all of them, but certainly a bunch of the unlabelled and empty bottles,” she agrees, “Also, there’s this large mirror in here that would be perfect to sell off.”

“Well what are we waiting for? Let’s get rid of it!”

* * *

A few hours later, Em and I arrive home with a successful fortune from our antique dealings.

Well, I’d personally call it ninety-five percent successful.

The chosen mirrors (particularly the massive one with the gold-plated frame) sold fantastically compared to everything else (which sold well) and made enough of a small fortune. Enough to pay off our parents’ bills for both sides (because hey, we can) and leave a reasonable amount for us to budget off. 

The only things we came home with were the bottles.

Even asking other antique shoppers and stores failed, too. Not one person would take a single bottle, not even for free, and nobody would say why.

“Goodness me, did you notice the way they reacted when we tried to offer the bottles?”

“Yeah, it’s like they were some dumb bad luck charms or something!” I huff, “Those things really can’t be much of a big deal.”

“Well… on the bright side, they could be of other uses. Like water bottles.”

I think it over, resting a hand on my chin. She has a point, but…

“Apart from that, what are we gonna do with this many bottles anyway?”

“A vinegar bottle, an oil bottle, maybe salt, pepper and sugar shakers if we’re clever enough!”

I stare at our collection again, trying to imagine it.

“We’re going to have a lot of salt, sugar and pepper if we’re gonna go with that idea. And maybe figure out how to make grinders for them and get them in there… But let’s do it! And those other ideas too, we’re definitely going to need more uses than just those.”

* * *

As Em and I do our best making plans, coming up with ideas and grabbing spare materials to convert the bunch of glass bottles into many things away from their original purpose, the strange unease I had back in the attic returns.

I can’t help looking behind me, always half-expecting to see someone or something other than me, Emily or even Laurie. While passing some of the general mirrors in the house for materials…

I swear.

I swear to God… 

I swear I see someone else.

They’re never in front or behind me, never away where those regular mirrors are, but always in the reflections. Sure, if I stare at the mirror or the window for too long, everything’s normal. But if I glance at it for only a moment…

“Cora?”

“Gah!”

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, hey Laurie… You’ve finally cleared your record, have you?”

“I’m letting the last bits send through,” my sister shrugs, “I came out to grab a bite and stretch. What were you and Em up to?”

“Clearing out some stuff from one of the guest rooms.”

“Was it the one with all the weird junk and mirrors?”

“You’ve been there already?”

“Duh, last I let stuff load and render, it looked a lot more easier and cleaner than usual. By the way, you did see the Mirror Man, right?”

“The Man in the Mirror, you mean,” Em looks at us, hand on her hip and an eyebrow raised. Her smile is genuinely friendly though, as Laurie and I simultaneously roll our eyes.

“Really, Emmy?”

“Well you have that kind of banter on  _ me _ a lot, so I figured I’d have a crack at it.”

“Do  _ you  _ believe in the Man in the Mirror, Emily?”

“Laurie--”

Em’s cut off by our stomachs collectively growling.

“Oh, dear. Do any of you have the time?”

“Holy cracking crystals in crumbling crevasses! Lunch was two hours ago!”

“…Where the bloody hell did that come from, Laurie?”

“We’ve got no time to waste on language, Cora. It’s lunchtime!”

I’m about to run off with them, but my eyes catch up on a mirror I’d seen get left behind in the museum-bedroom when Em and I ran off to the antique shop. I suppose Laurie did some redecorating when we were gone.

It’s a small, circular mirror with a decorative frame, but it’s sizable enough for two people to fit their faces in when passing by.

My eyes narrow as I point between the mirror and myself with two fingers.

“We’re not blind, you buttcheek,” I hiss and scowl, “This isn’t over yet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was brought to you by: I Know It's Late, But I Am An Actual Adult With Adult Life Things To Do (Including A Script Due In Two Days For University), And I Am Very Tired. 
> 
> Even though I had literally pre-wrote this chapter years in advance, I still felt the ungodly urge to edit it to my better standards.
> 
> Also!! Act One's cover is complete with character art done by @JokerV3 on here, with their art tumblr as jokerx-art! Go follow and commission them!
> 
> https://www.deviantart.com/sweetpanda13/art/The-Eagle-s-Cross-ACT-ONE-Cover-868320787


	5. CHKR

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Cora and Laurie get a chance to investigate.

**Sunday, 20th January, 2104.**

* * *

“Em? You leaving for church  _ this _ early?” I ask her, rubbing my eyes under my glasses.

“Well, I don’t have a proper sense of how far away it is from here, even after a few weeks. So I suppose it's best if I get going early.”

“At six in the morning?” I wonder, still a little groggy.

“If I arrive sooner than expected, I’ll just help around the place. And you know Sundays are usually days off for me, regardless.”

“Oh, alright,” I sigh, “Be safe, okay? I don’t want midnight to come and go and you’re not home.”

Em’s laughter is soft and light, a sound of heaven I’m sure.

“Of course I’ll come back in one piece, and the van will too. Mum and dad wouldn’t allow me to pull that on them, especially after we’ve paid their bills, so here’s hoping they won’t let me do that to you. If they don’t kidnap me as soon as we’ve had our chat.”

“If they do that, Laur and I will track you down and break you out.”

“I’m sure I’ll come back.”

“Promise, Emmy?”

“Promise, Corrie.”

* * *

It’s not till eight-thirty in the morning that my little sister arrives in the kitchen with bleary eyes and a bedhead. Her hair’s so nuts, I’m holding back giggles while being ninety percent sure she’s not gonna bother with  _ trying  _ to comb it.

Oh, who am I kidding. Laurie’s hair is pretty much untamable since it’s pretty much Goldilocks’ curls, twenty-four/seven. And that’s somehow through the  _ genetics _ . When most of us have  _ straighter  _ hair than this. __

“Rough night, huh?”

“Yeah,” she groans, “Couldn’t stop thinking about that clearing-up from two days ago.”

“How’d it go? How’d you do it?”

“I put together everything I could in a timeline of events and wrote an essay,” she splats into one of the chairs, “Worth a summer school assignment. I wanted to really prove it  _ wasn’t _ me who made that stupid broadcast. Stupid Donny and Blitz, trying to frame me for no reason with their  _ stupid  _ Red Army scam… Why are _those_ Lawson cousins that’re such a pain? Why can’t they be decent like the rest of their family?”

Holy  _ damn _ .

“I mean, at least you have so much evidence against them and their holos thanks to Ed on Christmas, but dear God, did you really have to put yourself through so much?”

“Well, I’m also trying to impress them at the same time so they’ll have more of a reason to back off me. The essay and footage were a pain to write and edit within reasonable file size.”

“Oh my god…” I sigh, “Seriously, all of what you’ve done  _ has  _ to be enough to go through. If they can’t accept it--”

“I guess I’ll have to defend myself from their Big Brother tactics. I mean, give or take a couple more challenges from Ed and Ell and adjusting to the new tech more, it should be easy to break through their heavy-duty firewalls.”

Both our stomachs growl.

“Uhm… Cora? What’s for breakfast?”

“Would toast be good?”

A small smile.

“Yeah. Thank you.”

* * *

We don’t talk as we take in the cool morning air from the open windows, the silence sharing a space with the satisfying crunches of toast.

Laurie hasn’t woken up yet-- well, not entirely. She still doesn’t have that usual lively spark in her eyes right--

“Hang on, where’s Emily? And why just margarine on this toast?”

Ah, there we go.

“At church,” I swallow my new bite. 

“Oh, right.” 

“If her parents kidnap her, you’re in charge of tracking them down and bringing her back here.” 

“Of _course_ I’m in charge of that since I’m the only big hacker in this house…”

“Aw, don’t sound so grumpy over it Laur! You seriously have the coolest hobby ever which could  _ really  _ save lives here!”

“Shut uuuuup!”

“By the way, you can put other stuff on your toast if you want, since I brought it out. I mean, you can have your favourite hazelnut spread.”

“Eh, I guess the margarine’s alright. Haven’t had a ‘plain’ breakfast in awhile, I suppose-- Cora.”

“What? Something wrong?”

“Don’t move-- aw crap. He’s gone!”

“Who?”

I look behind me to see nobody there, just a regular early twenty-first century kitchen and a mirror on the wall--

Wait.

“You see him too? You actually see him?! That wasn’t a joke?”

“I saw him the day before yesterday,” she admits sheepishly, staring at her toast, “When I peeked in the junk room during a loading break.”

“You mean the antique room.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, there’s no shame in admitting it Laur,” I shrug, “You’re not the only one here who saw him.”

“I didn’t feel too comfy talking about it when Em was around. Didn’t want her to shoot down arguments too fast.”

“Well, Em isn’t right here now, we can talk about it all we want. Geez, if this stuff keeps happening over our stay here… Say, d’you have an empty notebook around?”

“Yeah, school still wants those to be used, despite it being the twenty-second-freaking-century-- Oh, you want to write all of this down?”

“Not just the mirror man,” I agree, “But everything since day one.”

* * *

It takes us about ten or so minutes to write down everything with as much accurate detail as possible: From the four white blips on the electric grid, to the most recent sighting of the mirror man today.

“I guess I’m not having that notebook back.”

“Nope.” I shake my head, “It’s barely been two whole weeks and already _so_ _much_ has happened. I’m actually surprised Em hasn’t noticed it.”

“Maybe she has.”

“Hm?”

“What if she has seen it and she’s ignoring it on purpose? Just for the sake of a bit of peace and quiet, at least early in the stay here? I mean, you know how her parents can be sometimes.”

The both of us shut up at the thought.

“…Do you believe Emily’s dismissals?”

“I want to,” she sighs, “Ignorance is bliss. But at the same time…”

I stare at my empty plate.

“We shouldn’t worry about it right now,” Laurie grins, taking one last bite of her toast and grabbing her empty plate to put in the sink, “But at least we have a journal to record down everything that happens from here on in.”

“True. Wait, is it called a journal for a reason? I was going to call it a logbook.”

“The author of the journals,” Laur giggles, “My sister.”

I facepalm.

“Fair enough.” I take my own plate to the sink and start washing them up, “Hey, you wanna play some Portal co-op after we brush our teeth?”

“Mhmm! You want me to bring up old game modes or just want a regular one?”

“Eh, we’ll figure it out when we get to it.”

* * *

“Hey hey, you put a portal there, and I’ll put one here and… No, not there-- Laurie! Is this on purpose you cheek? You’re not usually like this!”

“Hey,  _ you’re _ the one who knows these maps back to front, you nerd! I’m trying to give you a challenge!”

“I have good reasons! First of all, Aperture Science has a cool aesthetic and the puzzles are a LOT more fun to do with another person, second-- gah, not this time-- Oh come on! We had It!”

Her face is nearly an exact replica of the classic ‘cat with a knife’ meme. Always there when she straight up causes problems on purpose.

“You’re gonna get your butt  _ kicked _ when I respawn.”

“…You were saying?”

“Look, my second point was that the writing of this universe and the story and the characters are so good! Even when combining it with Half-Life--”

“Hello, Gordon!”

“Not where the AI is self-aware!”

“Are you suuuuure?”

“You and I both know,” I groan, “It’s just from a series of streams. There’s no possible way of it actually happening. Not since the Deviance Incident of 2065 made any AI passing the Turing test illegal. Hey, can you portal me up here again?”

“Oh sure, here you go. But we’ll see about that AI, you can’t stop people making it happen illegally!”

“Says the one who basically  _ lobotomised  _ all her holos upon getting them.”

“Hey, you couldn't trust your personal tech to  _ not  _ be listening in on you since the invention of the computer, basically! Both of us  _ like _ our privacy - you let me, Ell and Ed lobotomise your phone and other stuff. Em let us do it to her stuff too.”

“Ugh, true. Hey, you know what would be cool? Three-person co-op in Portal.”

“Oh, that would be so neat! Wait, it’s just because you want Emily to play with us now, huh.”

“Do you blame me? She’s good at this too! I bet we’d all make a great team!”

“… In real life too?”

“Yeah. Maybe the longer we stay here together, hopefully with something to  _ do  _ apart from loving this place into making it ours, the more we might…”

“I get it.”

“Really?”

“Kind of. I mean, we’ve just been here for a few weeks already with weird stuff happening, so who’s to say we won’t have something cool to happen to us?”

“I like the sound of that. Oh nice! That was the last puzzle!”

My sister smirks before grabbing a small box far to her left and putting it to her mouth, and I  _ know  _ what’s coming up next.

“Look, test subjects. I know that completing the tests is worth cause for celebration.” She tries to deadpan and hold back giggles, while the voice modulator makes her sound  _ exactly  _ like GLaDOs, “The only sound that’s coming from me, your sentient and self-aware AI overlord, is the sound of no-one caring. Not even me. I only cared about  _ one  _ human in this facility and now she’s--aheehahahaha! Oh god, I can’t do this without it being funny!”

“You seriously,” I burst into laughter too, “brought that along with you?!”

“Can’t have fun with it if I didn't!” She puts it away as she cat-grins again. “Besides,  _ you _ packed your Portal-gun replica with you right?”

“Oh shut up, you know I had to put it in the bookshelf! What are you even gonna do with the voice modulator here?”

“Oh, not here. At school.”

“…You’re planning revenge against the Lawson twits, are you.”

“…Maybeeee? Oh hey! I was looking around my room earlier and I found something cool!”

“Oh?”

She stands, stretching before swiping off a bunch of holoscreens and making her way to a set of metal panels on the doorway’s wall.

“Wait a min,” I frown, “How did we not notice those when we first came?”

“It was originally hidden in the wall, but this one _actually_ looks like it’s from old Tom the First. I meddled with it till I discovered it had to be opened by an eye scanner.”

“Wha?”

“Here, take a look! This is the first time I’ll break into it, so we’ll both see what it is!”

I stand and make my way over to the black wall-box, staring over Laurie’s shoulder as she taps, slides and types away on her hacking program.

“Come on, come on, just a little bit more…” 

> **Picking the lock…**
> 
> **SITE UNLOCKED**
> 
> **Creating key for future use…**
> 
> **KEY CREATED: CHKR**

“Gotcha!”

The box doors slide open sideways, and out comes a checkered bass guitar.

So that explains the key name.

“Whoa, that’s awesome!”

“…Yeah. You don’t say.”

“Laurie…” I glance around the room, putting the pieces together, “D’you think it’s actually…”

“I-I guess. I mean, it would be cool if it was…”

For a few slow and long seconds, the air drops cold, despite a heater being on.

“Brr, did you touch anything Cora?”

“No…”

Wait,  _ is  _ the heater on?

I turn around to find it’s been stopped - one of Laurie’s holos which is keeping track of it as a remote just… turned it off?

“Funny,” Laurie tilts her head, “Why did it do that…?”

Nevertheless, I head back to my spot on the floor and pen the new events in the journal.

“Everything alright, Cor?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. I should head to the basement to check on stuff.”

“Normal basement or the weird multilayered one?”

“Um…”

“Please, don’t go there. Either of them.”

“Why?”

Laurie sits back down next to me, shifting the heater remote tab to the electrical maps of the house.

“What’s with the feedback vid from day one?”

“No no, this one’s archived from  _ yesterday _ . And from the weird basement a couple days ago.”

“What?”

I stare at the screen intently, waiting for--

“Wait a min, are those the same white blips from last time?”

“Maybe? I don’t know, but look! They were freely roaming the fourth basement level!  _ We  _ were there last Tuesday!”

“Oh my god… Laurie, are you  _ sure  _ they’re the same blips from day one?”

“I’ve tried comparing footage, but I’m not a hundred percent on that with you.”

“What about similar electronic signals they gave off?”

She shakes her head.

“I don’t think my tech is powerful enough to try it out, former Lawson stuff or not. I’d probably eat up a full power cell in my pocket, even if we wanted twenty-five percent of the data to download and take a look at.”

“Come on, Laur.” I try to reassure her, “Surely it can’t be the case.”

“But what if it is?”

Her bright blue eyes are full with worry.

“Please, Laur. Just once for me and the journal? I’m sure you can plug the power cell in your lab and recharge it, too!”

She stares at the screen in front of her for a moment, before pulling her jacket pockets inside out and holding the small cubed power cells in her gloved hands.

“Alright. But if these blow up,  _ you’re _ getting the new ones.”

“No I won’t,  _ you’re _ the one threatening the Lawson twits at GLaDOs-point.” 

“… I’d tell you to shut it, but you’re right.”

* * *

She gets down to business, fingers flying across the holoscreen as she pulls up some code-creator/translator and compressor, running the footage and its raw components through it.

“Once I can get everything, I can sort out the coding that the blips give off from all the other stuff, then run it through an analyser to see how much of it is matching up.”

“How long should it take?”

“A few minutes. My archiver doesn’t just store sixty-nine terabytes--”

“Nice!”

“--and more for nothing. I hope it doesn’t get corrupted though…”

“Alright-- wait, how were you able to make it so the blips were seen to you on the electricity network twenty-four/seven?”

“Mostly by fiddling around.”

Not the answers I want, but hey. I’m not gonna press further when she’s busy.

* * *

“Alright… I think I have the info, let’s see if we can get a match through this stuff.”

I lean over Laur’s head for a better look as she hits enter.

Come on, something should…

“Whoa!”

“Holy popping poodles in paradise!”

“Again, Laurie?”

“Come on, you can see why I said that!”

> **ALL SAMPLES SCANNED**
> 
> **99.89% MATCH WAS FOUND  
>  BETWEEN GROUPS A AND B**

“Group A is the blips from day one, and B is from the most recent sighting of them,” Laur explains, “I’m guessing the other point-eleven percent was from the difference in time.” 

“Holy crap… Laur, is it possible to look at what the data  _ really  _ makes up? Apart from white dots on your screen?”

“I dunno, Cora. After making hell for myself two days ago, I’m not sure if we should do this. At least now.”

“Can’t we even get a preview? From  _ one _ of the blips at least?”

“…Alright, just one,” she reluctantly nods, “But one only.”

“Fine by me.”

“Alright, let’s see… Separate some of that stuff… Set to preview-- what the heck?”

“Already? What’s wrong?”

> **ERROR: UNABLE TO DISPLAY  
>  INSUFFICIENT POWER**

“…Has that ever come up before?”

“No…”

Weird. Laurie’s tech should be the most powerful stuff in this whole house, but yet…

I scribble down as much as I can of the recent events into the journal, trying (and failing) to keep it as neat as possible.

“You’re really going to get  _ everything  _ weird down in there, are you?”

“Yeah, I guess this  _ is _ Journal One for now.”

“D’you think Emily should see this?”

“The journal, or?”

“Both.”

“Definitely not the journal,” I reason, “If she’s not going to believe us. But maybe we can show the data results at a later time.”

“Sure,” Laur nods, “But it’s so weird, Cora. We all just came here to get a paid somewhat-break from work thanks to dad, but instead of an actual break from everything…”

“We’re winding up with a mystery on our hands,” I finish, “I don’t think there’s any denying it: there’s so much more than meets the eye around here. Even Em can’t deny the house is a treasure trove of secrets.”

“You’re right, but we’ve barely scratched the surface, there’s still so much at hand. But, I don’t want to get my hopes up if it’s all a fake.”

“How come?”

“If I play it neutral between you and Em, I’ll have no room for disappointment when the cookie crumbles in one way or the other.”

“Smart kid.” 

She grins.

_ Creaaaak. _

_ Clack. _

“I’m hooooome!”

“Oh thank god I don’t have to track you down!” 

By instinct, I shove the journal into my hoodie pocket as best as I can. 

“Let’s not mention the data to Emily yet." I whisper, "She sounds really happy and I don’t want to ruin the moment for her.”

“Good idea.”

“Just… One more quick thing, Laur. Have you ever gotten the feeling of being… Watched, since you came here?”

“Not really, aside from the Mirror Man. Why?”

“Just… Wondering.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well! Another two weeks, another chapter!
> 
> If you see this, yell at me to work on editing and writing Act Two as best I can, because it is shockingly coming up FAST and I need to get (at least) a good chunk of it fixed before I release it in the coming fortnights. 
> 
> Also, yell at me to talk to my next commissioner for the cover of Act Two. 
> 
> See you next fortnight for Chapter Six!


	6. Lights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something's flickering.

**Friday, 25th January, 2104.**

* * *

Since the day I got it, I’ve been dutifully recording all the weird happenings from the house into the journal. Every out-of-place thing, every Mirror Man sighting, every time the heating’s acted up. So has Laurie, but I’ve been more used to a pen and paper than she has. 

But so far, it’s all been… Average, honestly. There’s been nothing _big_ happening since I got the journal. And I think it’s mostly because I’m _waiting_ for this stuff to happen instead of _looking_ for it. I just don’t want to spark up Laurie’s worry or Em’s dismissals, that’s all. Just to keep a sense of normalcy.

Today, though… I might have a chance.

Laurie and Emily are gone for a while - Laur’s got a meeting with her principal about the Red Radio debunking, and Em has to take her since her mum’s also _really_ wanting to have a solo chat at Foyles. The moment Emmy and Laur are out the door and I hear the hovervan flying away, I immediately beeline to Laurie’s room and look at the holos she’s left up and running.

“Heating system,” I read aloud, “Good to see that’s going on. ‘Firebird Case Goes On’… Poor Mr McCoy, he’s got to be struggling. Well, at least he’s got a relative keeping him company. Wonder why Laurie would keep tabs on either of these guys. Legend of Legion rumour articles? Weird. Red Radio evidence files… Ooh! A live feed of the electrical system! Laur, you’re a genius!”

Hope she won’t mind me borrowing this for a bit. 

* * *

Nothing’s come up… Yet.

Still, at least I’ve found ways to keep myself busy: vacuuming the ground floor and Em’s attic, washed and put away dishes, did the laundry for everyone… That kind of boring adult stuff. Until I check the electrical system’s feed.

The blips. They’re in the basement. The one _just_ under my feet.

Blood roars in my ears.

They’re so close. So, so close. I have the chance to try and find out what’s going on with them, but…

No.

No buts about it. Nothing of that sort. Screw it.

With a basement key in hand, I’m going in.

* * *

Immediately, my body is screaming for me to _leave._

_Get out. Now. Run._

Not today. Not now… I’ve come so far. I’ve shut and locked the door behind me. I _need_ answers. The blips are here, _here._ And not just one, _all_ of them! I _deserve_ a chance of making contact before it’s too late!

Checking the screen again while making my way to the middle of the room, I notice three of them are moving away to the wall and… Disappearing? Through a door? A hidden door?

_Oh my god, they can see me._

“Wait,” I call out after them, “Wait a second! Come back! I come in peace!”

The lights in the room flicker on and off and panic screams through my body.

“Please! I-I just want to talk! I can’t hurt you and I don’t want to!”

The lights stop flickering, landing at on.

I heave a breath of relief looking at the holo, seeing one white blip in the room that hasn’t left. However, it’s close to the door I came through and locked behind me.

Was… Was it trying to get out?

“Hey,” I try again, “I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t think I can anyway, I-I just want to talk.”

The blip, in real time, slowly makes its way over - my eyes widen at the screen. 

Whatever it is… It’s standing _right in front of me._

* * *

The feeling of being watched… It’s so strong. I should be scared, but… I’m not?

It can see me. I can’t see it. And… It’s okay?

It’s… It’s like a new friend I’m getting acquainted with. An invisible person I still have no idea of, but still… a friend. A potentially creepy one at that. I still feel panicked, but… It’s a good kind of panic. I think.

“So… “ I manage, “I’m guessing you can’t teleport. Neither can your friends, right?”

Silence. Not even a disembodied voice. Not sure if I’d calm down or freak out if I heard it.

“U-um, s-sorry if I’m interrupting you but… Are you talking? Because… I can’t hear you. It’s weird, but…”

The blip moves back to the light switch before the lights go on and off again, even though the switch isn’t moving. And this time, I’m not scared. Well, not entirely.

“Oh, right! You can mess with the electricity!”

The lights flicker enthusiastically.

“Okay… how about once for ‘yes’, two for ‘I don’t know’, and three for ‘no’… Sound good?”

_Off._

“Alright… Can you see me? J-just to make sure.”

_On._

“Good! Good. Um, can you… Teleport?”

_Off. On. Off._

“Whoa. Really? Okay, um… Can you speak, even though _I_ can’t hear you?”

_On._

“Um… Were you… Scared of me when I first came in?”

_…Off. On._

“Honestly?” I frown.

_Off. On._

“How come? No, that wouldn’t work here! Erm… Oh, do you know what year this is?”

_Off-on-off._

Oh dear.

“Do… You want me to tell you?”

_On-off-on._

Holy cow, what the…?

“Like, not right now?”

_Off-on-off._

“Are you… Scared? Of knowing it?”

_…On._

Aww, softie. At least they’re honest.

“Fair enough, I suppose. So…”

One of the three blips who left earlier comes back up on the holo-screen from that supposed hidden door area. Looking up, it’s a thick cabinet, which, come to think of it… Looks a bit _too_ out of place.

Good to know.

“Do you have to go?”

_Off._

“Oh, alright… We should catch up later at some point. Does that sound good?”

_On._

“Till then! I suppose…”

I watch the two blips on the holoscreen vanish out of the level of the room and I find myself waving at the hidden cabinet door as I leave, unlocking the door and turning the lights off _properly_.

I bolt out the basement, slamming the door shut behind me.

Good god, what the _hell_ just happened?

* * *

It takes me about half an hour in the living room to recount all the events in the journal as neatly as possible while trying to still my constantly exploding heart. _What_ the hell did I communicate with? And if possible, _who_?

I need to get my head straight… Can’t think with all this excess panic.

Focus, Cora. Focus. Deep breaths…

Just like during work.

I pull my glasses off and rub my eyes, yawning off some of the worry as a small wave of exhaustion hits. The holoscreen next to me beeps and I pull it close to my face, squinting.

> PREVIEW FOR GROUP A ¼ DATA SAMPLE:
> 
> 100% COMPLETE.

Nice one Laur, but _did_ it have to take this long?

The preview pops up after, and the coding looks like a mess. Well, most coding already looks like a mess in general to me, especially without my glasses…

I groan as I pull them back on and press something on-screen for a holo-keyboard to appear. Huh, it worked? Right. Maybe my old tech training I had with Ell and Ed can help… 

> command!find_common_elements
> 
> SEARCHING…
> 
> THREE COMMON ELEMENTS FOUND

I write notes on the code progress into the journal before selecting Element Number One.

> //:c**o***t_**o**i*

Why is it censored? Not even highlighting over or refreshing it works.

Weird. Probably partially corrupted.

Alright, number two…

> //:deaging_process:100%_complete

Scribbling it and the first one down into the notebook, I frown. What could they mean?

> //:user_e**_g***_*

I stare at the final element, confused. Unless if it were Ed setting up a prank or dad dropping in an easter egg for trivia, why would these initials come up here? Apart from the fact that this is my ancestral--

Home.

Ancestors… 

> //:user_e**_g***_*

Hmm…

I scribble down the last of my findings into the journal, moments before I hear the hovervan landing outside.

Grabbing the holoscreen, I dash into Laurie’s room and fling it in there, before running back to the living room, crashing onto the couch, stuffing the journal into the cushions and closing my eyes.

_Creaaak…_

“Cora, don’t be silly, you _never_ sleep with your glasses on!”

Dammit!

“Well, you got me there, Em. You’re getting too good for this Sherlock business.”

She rolls her eyes, quickly letting Laurie in and shutting the door after.

“It’s _fact_ at this point, Watson. There’s no denying it.”

“True,” I shrug while sitting up, “How’s your mum going?”

“Oh, she’s good! There isn’t anything happening back with her and dad, so she wanted to chat with me. She asked a _lot_ about life here and what it’s like.”

“Well, that’s pretty much a given.”

“I think I’m in the clear. Recently I haven’t needed to message them _every_ day since it’d be a bit much, and mum did mention dad laying some time off socials…”

“Emmy, that’s fantastic! Told you it’s gonna be alright! Say, how did Laurie go?”

“My name’s totally cleared!” She calls from the kitchen in a sing-song voice, “The Lawson twins are in troubleeeee!”

“So the essay was worth it then!”

“Essay?”

“I’ll tell you later, Em,” Laur strides in grinning, a piece of newly made victory toast in her hand, “Oh, Cora. Did anything happen when we were gone?”

I shake my head.

“No, nothing new. I did adult stuff around the house. Y’know, vacuuming, putting away dishes, doing the laundry, just boring things.”

“Nothing… Unusual?”

Would you believe me if I told you two?

“Nnnope.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeesh, it's been a weird few weeks for me between the last chapter and now. I've started editing Act Two, but it's slow going. And Uni starts up this coming Tuesday, so...
> 
> At least all the classes are ONLY on Tuesday and there's just two of 'em.
> 
> See you next fortnight's Friday for the end of Act One!

**Author's Note:**

> Permanent disclaimer: this fic has been in the works since 2015. Ergo, there's still a lot of editing to to do and a whole finale to be rewritten then written again. But I promised myself it'd be finished. 
> 
> Because this fic was started in 2015, there are a lot of EW fandom historical indicators that have not been changed in-fic out of sheer sanity for myself and also as a sort of documentation of time. So if there's anything in the EGC timeline which is deemed 'cancelled' or controversial in present day, keep in mind that it wasn't so at the time, and I am FAR too tired to change this story again - I have to keep powering through this till it's done, so I'll stick to the storyline. 
> 
> However, it is my own spin on things, and magic can be done by the power of editing. We'll have to see how I go.
> 
> This fic also has multiple covers in the works with help from friends and artists I've commissioned! I'll leave links and @'s to the respective character artists of these covers as time goes on: 
> 
> ACT ONE COVER, character art by @JokerV3/jokerx-art (tumblr): https://www.deviantart.com/sweetpanda13/art/The-Eagle-s-Cross-ACT-ONE-Cover-868320787  
> ACT TWO COVER: Coming soon  
> ACT THREE COVER: Coming soon  
> FINALE COVER: Coming soon. 
> 
> Updates every second Friday in AEST!


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